1. Field of the Invention
A ground conductor includes a conductor body formed from a sheet of conductive metal material of a given thickness, the conductor body having a horizontal base portion, and a pair of downwardly extending vertical leg portions that contain opposed mounting rail cavities that terminate at one end in a pair of flange recesses. A vertical tongue portion extends downwardly from the conductor body transversely across the leg portions at the other end of the cavities, the tongue portion having a width that is greater than the thickness of the metal sheet. When the conductor body is mounted on the mounting rail with one flange extending within the recesses, a spring biases the conductor body in a direction to effect electrical engagement between the other rail flange portion and the adjacent surface of the tongue portion.
2. Description of Related Art
Grounded conductor wire connection devices are used in various electrical devices, especially in terminal blocks that can be snapped on mounting rails or in electronic housings of some other kind, for example, in switchboards of machines, in order to establish a connection to the mounting rail. The transition resistance to the mounting rail is to be as low as possible, and in case of an error, it should be possible to guarantee a high current conduction.
An example of a typical grounded conductor wire connection device is described in the Follmann et al European patent No. EP 1 182 735 B1, wherein the grounded conductor connection device consists of a sheet metal part with a U-shaped seat for a mounting rail. By way of another feature, it is provided here that only a relatively small cross-section is available for the current conduction of the grounded conductor wire.